Marketing Blog

The holidays are coming. From early November until January 1, the industry takes part in an annual marathon that really starts now. Big prep for the busiest buying season begins in August, and, just like last year, and the year before that: you never have as much time as you think you do.

Today, Amazon broke the Internet when it announced that it was reducing list prices at recently-acquired Whole Foods by upwards of 40%. (Insert your own Whole Paycheck joke here.) Amazon also recently announced that it would offer perks to Prime members (which, as of this posting, have only been alluded to and not officially outlined as of yet).

For those of you who have been following along at home (or, more likely, work), we’ve been talking a lot about the so-called retail apocalypse. Yes, there have been a lot of stores that are failing, and while online retail is a huge contributor, it’s far from the only one. We’ve also pointed out that aggressive and creative brand strategies are necessary for survival.

A few weeks ago, I was watching TV with my kids on a Friday night. A commercial started playing and for some reason I watched it instead of looking at product pages for our customers on jet.com (you know, to give our spiders a break).

August is the month to get prepared for the busy holiday shopping season. Here’s one thing we know: consumers are looking for you and your products. We also know that if you adopt the “set it and forget it” philosophy of eCommerce: shoppers won’t find your products even when they’re looking.

This week, retailers had a moment to rejoice when overall consumer spending in the retail sector was up by 0.6%, the biggest jump of the year, and showing a 4.2% increase from this time last year. Not bad from an industry that’s been plagued by high-profile bankruptcies and notable consolidations.

While we all have to remain pragmatic about the continued unraveling of some national retail stores: it’s completely unrealistic to assume that physical retail is in an unavoidable, inevitable death spiral (also: it’s not). Payless Shoes just announced that it’s emerging from bankruptcy. Despite the gloom and doom headlines, not all physical stores are buckling under Amazon’s online heft. In...

Because online search is defined by how interactive it is, it’s perhaps the most dynamic marketing technology in history. While there are certain tactics and parameters that have stayed with us, as consumer search habits continue to evolve, SEO managers and marketing teams have to evolve alongside their customers.

Big brands come and go, and they always have. What’s happening in retail right now, however, only happens once in a generation. We’ve been saying for a while that, in the online retail space: surviving is the new winning. This is especially true for single-channel retailers, like battered (and once beloved) clothing seller J. Crew.

Our Latest eBook Teaches You What to Fix and Where to Fix It

How well you’re optimizing your online product features can mean all the difference between page one search results on major retailers, or not showing up at all. It’s a given that your marketing and product teams need to keep your product catalogs up to date, but is the team focusing their energy on the right types of...